Tornado Touches Down In Warren County

"I raised the window in our bedroom to look around the backyard and it was so loud, I couldn't even hear what she was saying to me."

The noise that Bob Lightfoot heard was the sound of extremely high winds whipping their way across Warren County in the early hours of Wednesday morning, leaving places like the Bryce Inn in Smith's Grove in shambles.

"Half of the roof of the motel is laying in our parking lot now. We got all of our guests out and everybody is safe. I called Warren (Rural) Electric (Cooperative Corporation) and had them shut the electric off to prevent a fire, but we've got a lot of water damage." said Lightfoot, who owns the Bryce Inn.

The damage from the storm is devastating, stretching from Warren County into Edmonson County. And perhaps no area was harder hit than Junior Prather Road where a liquid fertilizer tank was thrown a few hundred yards. That fertilizer tank belongs to Chad Stracener whose shop was demolished by the storm. So much so that pieces of sheet metal from the building sheered tree tops on its way to being thrown almost out of viewing distance.

"Not since I've been around. I've heard stories back in the day that it used to be bad but it's the worst storm I've seen so far. I've just heard my dad tell stories about when they was younger and a tornado came through. That's about the only thing I've ever heard around here besides just a big heavy rain." commented Adam Jackson, 22, who helped clean up storm damage.

The National Weather Service in Louisville says an EF-2 tornado touched down in Smith's Grove. They are also assessing the damage on Junior Prather Road near Stracener's shop to decide if a twister is the cause of the damage there as well.

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